LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – The question required only a moment of thought before Eric Mangini delivered the answer.

“Has there been a moment on the job so far where you’ve felt overwhelmed?” the Jets’ 35-year-old rookie coach was asked.

“Flying down here and trying to get the newborn and the 2-year-old onto the plane – dual meltdown,” Mangini said yesterday during the NFL owners meetings’ annual coaches breakfast at the Hyatt Grand Cypress.

“That,” Mangini said, “was tough. You can’t reason with them. You can’t make them run. You can’t fine them. You can’t cut them. We’re prepping for the ride home [Friday]. We’re going with a new approach. [My wife Julie] is going on with the newborn [Luke] first and then I’ll go on as late as possible with [Jake]. We’ll have the DVD player teed up and ready to go.”

Surely, Mangini’s football life will become more complicated. He’s already gutted the roster, gotten the team under the salary cap and, on Monday, addressed the team en mass for the first time.

Mangini has gotten a good dose of advice from many of his peers, beginning with Browns coach Romeo Crennel, Dallas’ Bill Parcells and others, including Bill Belichick, with whom he worked most recently in New England.

“The one thing I’ve heard from everybody is that every day you’ll come into the office and there’ll be five things you didn’t expect,” Mangini said. “For me, I’d say it’s been five with the arrow pointing up.”

Interestingly, one of the mentors whom Mangini has walked cautiously around is Belichick, who was conspicuous by his absence yesterday.

“Our relationship has moved directly toward personal,” Mangini said. “Business is business. Now it’s more, ‘how’s the family and kids?’ instead of, ‘How are we going to set the edge with the running game?’ ”

Crennel, a close friend of Mangini’s and in his second year as an NFL coach, said, “There’s no handbook for being the head coach. Things come across your desk that you don’t expect to come across your desk, and you have to find an answer for. You cannot make up answers. Eric is going to have to go through some of that.”

Herman Edwards, now Chiefs coach after five years with the Jets, has some first-hand experience dealing with what Mangini is facing.

“The biggest challenge for him is to stick to his plan,” Edwards said. “And from what I know of Eric – I’ve spoken to him numerous occasions – he’s a strong-willed guy and he’s going to need that because he’ll be tested. Everything you do is under a microscope.

“The attention you receive when you’re in New York is bigger than it is anywhere else. And there’s no middle ground. It’s generally real good or it’s real bad. But you have to know what it really is. You can’t let the perception become the reality.

“I think he’s going to be good,” Edwards said. “I think he’s the right guy for the job.”

Now, if he can only get those kids on the plane Friday.

*

While remaining noncommittal on the QB situation, Mangini sounded encouraged by Chad Pennington’s rehab, saying, “Chad works as hard as anyone I’ve ever seen. He’s just wired that way. Chad is very comfortable with where he is in rehab and with his chances to start, and that’s great.”

Mangini said his plan right now is to play Pete Kendall at guard. Asked who’ll play center, Mangini said with a smile, “We’ll work that out.”

Mangini sounded very much in Curtis Martin’s court when he said, “I’ve faced Curtis too many times to underestimate him. When you underestimate the guy, he kills you.”